


What is Seen and What is- Carl Sees

by TWDObsessive



Series: What Is Seen and What Is. [9]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Canonical Character Death, Falling In Love, Friends to Lovers, M/M, POV Carl Grimes, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-01-07
Packaged: 2019-03-01 17:18:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13299528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TWDObsessive/pseuds/TWDObsessive
Summary: Carl thinks about how he's watched Rick and Daryl fall in love over the years.*This is part of the What is Seen and What is series, but it can absolutely be read separately.





	What is Seen and What is- Carl Sees

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to lotr58 for the beta!

I’ve seen. I’ve known since the prison, maybe even earlier. I’ve known since before Dad did, or Daryl. I think about it as we all hunker down in the sewer waiting for my dad to find his way to us. It’s a calming thought, as I sit there dying, that I won’t be leaving anyone alone.

I probably knew before anyone else. Dad was always so close beside me back in the early days and I would always notice his straying looks. At first I assumed he just thought the crossbow was as cool as I did. Then I thought maybe he looked to Daryl for a second opinion since Shane was gone. For a long time I wondered if Dad wanted to learn how to hunt, but all those things were wrong. 

At the prison, they worked together flawlessly. There was an effortlessness about their relationship that was a comfort to be around. Once Judy was born, it was almost as if Daryl had taken up residence in our small family. He was a permanent fixture when Dad was struggling with Mom’s death. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one surprised to see him carrying Judy, feeding her, singing to her. He stepped up like a man whose place was to be by my dad’s side all along. 

I was awake that morning - after the Claimers. I couldn’t sleep because I was still shaken by what had happened. Little did I know then that nearly being raped wouldn’t even make the top ten list of horrible things in my life. I watched through the windows of the car while Michonne slept and I saw the way they looked at each other, the soft, honest way they spoke. I know I’m young. I don’t know a lot of things. But I can sense the low murmur of people who are connected beyond what you can see. They exchanged these tender words that had a tone reserved for husbands and wives. It was an intimacy I hadn’t even seen him have with mom. Brothers...pft. It was already way more than that.

Once we were in Alexandria, Dad was beside himself with concern about Daryl’s hatred of the town and its people. He’d told me one night that he worried about Daryl just disappearing and never coming back. I knew better. Daryl would never leave him no matter what walls or what hurdles lay between them. Daryl still hovered over Judy even in the security of our first weeks in Alexandria. And he still followed Dad, always just a few steps behind. 

Everyone had to notice they way they spoke without words, the way they moved like they were one being. I suspected during that time that they’d started sleeping together. Well, it was hard not to notice when Jesus busted them and I watched them come out of the bedroom still getting dressed. Dad pulled me aside later as if I were a blind man. “I’m sorry. I was gonna tell you…”

Foolish. I was the one that thought I was gonna have to tell _him_. Just be with each other already. They were the only things that made one another happy. 

I felt the sting at my side again and looked down to see if I was bleeding through my shirt. Dad wasn’t going to handle this well and I ached more for his pain than the loss of my own life. 

“Take care of him,” I whispered to Daryl, who was sitting by my side with Judith buried in his arms.

“You know I will,” he murmured back, still not able to meet my eyes. I’d never seen him look so broken as he did when I showed him the bite. It made me feel loved like I hadn’t realized I was. He loved me like a son...and I loved him like a second father. 

Dad was going to break apart when I told him and I was glad to have Daryl at my side to step in for comfort. I dreaded the broken look that would be in Dad’s eyes.

He’s looked broken before, that’s for sure, and the worst was when Negan showed up with Daryl and pranced him through town in an apocalyptic prison uniform. Dad looked like he was going to fall to the ground. I’ve never seen want so strong as I saw it in his eyes as he gazed at Daryl without being able to talk. I ached for him. How dad survived that visit is beyond me. The look in his eyes as Daryl was driven off actually made me cry. That was the moment I decided that dying wouldn’t be such a horrible thing. There was just too much pain to see in this world day to day. And seeing Dad and Daryl happy and together was one of the few bright moments of light in a world growing darker by the hour. I couldn’t bear to see them apart.

The most beautiful moment between them was when we marched up to Hilltop ready to fight, ready to tell Maggie that we wanted to get Daryl back and destroy Negan once and for all. When Daryl came around the corner, I heard my dad gasp. When they came together and hugged it was like the sun rising in the sky. It was like all was right with the world and everyone was where they belonged. There is no doubt that Daryl belonged in Dad’s arms. There was never any doubt. 

I heard Dad’s footsteps before I saw him and I knew the worst moment of my life was about to hit me...telling Dad. No one spoke to him or looked at him as he walked slowly through the group. But I kept my eyes on him the whole way. I watched him watching me and I could already tell he sensed a problem. Dad had a way of knowing things. He was that way with Daryl, too. 

When he was just a few footsteps away, he leaned towards Daryl and ran his fingers over my second father’s hand and Judith’s back. It was if he sensed he would need Daryl. And he would.

“He brought me here,” Sadiq said quietly when Dad turned and saw the stranger.

“That’s how it happened,” I told Dad and I slowly uncovered my bite. I could hear Daryl, his voice making strained noises of grief that he couldn’t control and my dad dropped to his knees, his eyes haunted and unfocused. He had no words...and neither did I.

I would die. But I would know that I wasn’t leaving my dad alone. He’d still have family, it would just be smaller. My head hurt and my heart was beating slower as I dripped sweat from a fever. I could feel death surrounding me like a blanket. I was able to hang on long enough to say goodbye and that was the most I could ask for at this point. I felt myself floating away from life like water drips from a broken glass until it’s empty. 

I looked over to Daryl and my sister and back to Dad. 

“Take care of each other.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hopefully wiggling out of writer's block with these last two mini-fics! Thanks for reading!


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